Mike Caffey embraces coach Dan Monson’s challenge to become a stronger leader at Long Beach State

Long Beach State junior point guard Mike Caffey needs to be more of a team leader, 49ers coach Dan Monson said. “Mike, as a leader, he’s got a long way to grow,” Monson said.
Brittany Murray — Staff Photographer

Long Beach State men's basketball guard Mike Caffey, left, during a morning practice at the Pyramid. (Photo by Brittany Murray/Press Telegram)

LONG BEACH >> Mike Caffey shouted out words of encouragement as he took the ball downcourt during a recent Long Beach State men’s basketball practice at Walter Pyramid. Being a vocal leader has never been Caffey’s thing, but this is his team and the junior point guard out of Corona Centennial High is making an effort to be one.

“It was his team last year, you know, and the problem is we didn’t get everybody on the same page last year,” seventh-year 49ers coach Dan Monson said. “So, hopefully, that was a learning experience for him because Mike as a player, yeah, I have no complaint about. Mike as a leader, he’s got a long way to grow.”

Monson is trying to expedite that process with the same words of wisdom he used to impart to former point guard Casper Ware, who was a senior when Caffey was a freshman.

“I used to tell Casper this all the time, and I tell Mike, ‘Point guards are not measured by how many points they score or by how many assists they have, but by how many wins they have,’” Monson said, “And last year wasn’t good enough. And he’s got a whole new group with a lot farther way to go this year, and it’s gotta be his team.

“He’s gotta will them to be in the right spots, to do the right thing, to do all those right things a point guard and a leader does.”

Mincing words has never been Monson’s thing, so he has laid it out for Caffey, a first-team All-Big West Conference selection a year ago and a preseason first-team pick this season.

Caffey, team player that he is, accepts the challenge. But he admits he’s not quite there yet.

“Well, coming in as a freshman, I had to listen and learn,” said Caffey, who, as a freshman backed up Ware, but started all 33 games as a sophomore. “I wasn’t really the type of guy that, you know ... I like to lead by example. Like in high school, I led by example.

“In college, you know, you’ve gotta get on guys and talk to them. I wasn’t really that Chris Paul yell-at-you type of point guard. We’ve been struggling a little bit, so I’ve been working on it. Getting on guys is probably going to be better for me this year.”

Russell Turner, the fourth-year head coach for rival UC Irvine, understands the plight of both Monson and Caffey.

“Yeah, obviously, I do,” said Turner, whose redshirt sophomore guard, Dominique Dunning, was a high school teammate of Caffey’s. “A challenge to all of us coaches is to get guys to improve and expand themselves beyond what they’re naturally comfortable with. Mike Caffey’s a guy, one of the top players in the league, and he has the ball in his hands a lot for their team, so it only makes sense that he is expected to be a presence.

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“A lot of people think vocal leadership means getting on guys. I don’t necessarily agree with that. But you’ve gotta be a presence for that team in order for them to reach their potential.”

Now that Caffey has been around a couple of seasons, Turner expects him to assert himself in this area.

“I’m sure Mike, now that he’s a junior and he’s older, I’m sure he’s going to be better at that, just as guys throughout the league seem to improve in those areas as they get older and more experienced and better,” Turner said.

Not that Monson is blaming Caffey for the 49ers losing to Irvine in the semifinals of the Big West tournament last season, when they were favored to win it and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season after winning the regular-season conference title. It’s anything but that.

Without saying so, Monson basically let the world know who he believed was at fault when he did not invite back to the team guard Keala King, forward Tony Freeland — both of whom would have been seniors — and Deng Deng, who would have been a sophomore guard.

Many times during the course of the season, Monson bemoaned the very idea that he could not get his team to play as the unit he wanted it to be, that he had talented players who kind of wanted to do things their way.

Caffey didn’t mention any names, but he certainly took notice.

“I think most of it was just listening to coaches,” Caffey said. “Maybe some guys felt like maybe they were talented, that their way could work easier. But like my freshman year, the seniors, they all listened to the coach and did everything he said, and it made it easier for the offense and just everything.

“That’s something we lacked last year and that’s probably what the problem was. We’ve got a lot of guys this year that listen to coach, so off the bat that’s perfect for us. That’s going to help me out throughout the year, instead of like last year, you know, guys didn’t listen or play and then I had to shoot a shot at the (end of the) shot clock.”

Not that Caffey can’t make those last-second shots. His overall shooting percentage of 38.8 percent was down from the previous year, but he did make 46 of 140 from 3-point range — a respectable 32.9 percent.

“Mike Caffey is an explosive player, one of the best in the Big West,” Turner said. “He’s good both on offense and defense and he’s somebody who can take over a game, and I saw that from him even as a freshman when he was on a team that was really talented. He has a knack for making big shots.”

The 6-foot Caffey averaged 12 points, 3.8 assists and four rebounds last season. But as Monson said, it’s about victories, not numbers. Caffey realizes that. Thus, his main goal has nothing to do with personal statistics.